The present disclosure relates to a self-leveling bin assembly for use, for example, with a robotic pick-up system for removing material or parts from a parts bin of the bin assembly.
A robotic pick-up system typically uses a camera or some other vision system to locate a part to be picked up and transported to another location. Robotic pick-up systems are generally very efficient at removing parts from a table where the parts are evenly distributed on the table and there is only one “layer” of parts, i.e., the parts are not stacked on one another. Issues arise when the parts to be picked up are placed into a bin and the parts are stacked in a random manner resulting in several layers of parts especially in deep bins where the bin sidewalls can cause challenges for the robot's clearances for picking.
The general concept of self-leveling tables are known in the art, which require some type of spring or related mechanism to raise the table as material is removed from the table. However, one drawback of the prior art self-leveling tables is that the table typically includes cumbersome framework with the spring or related mechanism permanently interconnecting the table to the framework. Also, these known self-leveling tables are not designed to be used with a robotic pick-up system.